Emmie Kelso, rescued from a dingy Gateshead tenement and raised by the warm-hearted MacRaes, has grown into an intelligent, spirited young woman. She is swept off her feet by handsome Tom Curran, but it is only after their wedding that his violent nature is revealed. As war engulfs Europe in 1914, the community divides. Tom enlists, but Emmie defies her husband and joins those campaigning for peace. Among her fellow protesters is Rab, the MacRae's eldest son, and their childhood devotion to each other sparks into a love too strong to hide. But there's trouble ahead. Rab, arrested as a 'conchie', faces the ultimate penalty, then a brutalised Tom returns home. The war may be drawing to an end, but Emmie's fight for happiness is only just beginning...